This post originally appeared in Sixteen Great Twitter Moments by Realidad Alternativa.

On May 25th, Britt Reints (@missbritt), a resident of Florida, got a frantic call from a friend in her hometown of Parkersburg, Iowa:

“A tornado just hit Parkersburg. Houses are gone. Find your family.”

Frantically, she tried to call her parents via landline and cell, but couldn’t get through. The Weather Channel had nothing. Local news sites had yet to be updated. Britt had no idea what was going on, nor did she know where her family was.

Using a Twitter locator site (she doesn’t remember which) Britt searched for users within a certain mile radius of Parkersburg and started following them. Their Tweets informed Britt as to what had happened and where the tornado went. Luckily it bypassed her parents and grandparents. When she finally spoke to her family on the phone they were still in the dark as they had no TV, radio, or Internet access. Britt and her husband made the 24 hour drive to Parkersburg. While on the road she stayed connected to Twitter, and relayed the Tweeted FEMA and Red Cross information to her family via phone.

Filed under: Disaster Response